Identifying card fraud

Kaisa
- September 28, 2018 09:42

Accepting card payments online includes the potential risk of card fraud because the payer and the card are not physically present when the payment is made. Therefore, the merchant cannot compare the signature of the cardholder with the signature on the card being used, or otherwise verify that the card is used by the actual cardholder. Some card fraud occurs online, especially for industries where products are easily resold, or fraud is difficult to detect due to high volumes.

Typical signs of card fraud in order information:

Fraudulent customer contact information:

Does the customer's email address in any way refer to his name? Orders from email addresses that use free email services (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail and other similar services) may be a sign of fraud.

Does the customer's phone number look real? If needed, you can call the number to make sure the number is real. Take special care with prepaid numbers (such as Finnish numbers that begin with 046).

Does the customer's address seem real? In a fraud case, the address is often the street address of a hotel or other public place. Another possibility is a payment where the billing address and shipping address are different.

If the payer's IP address is displayed in your online store, we recommend comparing it with the customer's address information. You can find IP tools by searching for "IP address locator". IP search results are not always accurate, but the customer's IP address and contact information should be accurate, at least the country information.

If possible, also check if the customer has made multiple orders recently or whether the same billing address was used in multiple orders. Pay close attention to orders with the same billing address but are being sent to different shipping addresses. In card fraud, it is typical that after one order is successfully made, other orders will soon follow.

Please note that the above list is not exhaustive and a payment matching a particular fraud signal does not necessarily mean that it is fraudulent. However, should you have any concerns about the authenticity of the order, please contact us before shipping the order. We are happy to review the situation and provide assistance regarding the payment in question. Please contact us: support@paytrail.com or +358 20 718 1820.